SMART CloudSpeed 1000E Internals

The Eco comes bearing the branding from SMART Storage Systems, the company that originally developed the core IP behind the Guardian Technology Suite, and was recently purchased by SanDisk. SanDisk branding will follow the scheme outlined on the first page of this evaluation, though the pretty stickers are not the real story behind the Optimus Eco.

The construction of the Optimus Eco, which consists of precision milled aluminum alloy, speaks volumes to the care taken in the design of this SSD.

Popping apart the case brings the precision milling into view. There are recessed grooves that allow the heat producing components to come very close to contacting the case. Even though there is no direct surface mating, the extreme close tolerance design provides such a slim gap between the components and case, that heat is wicked efficiently into the case, which then acts as a large heat sink. This ingenious design forgoes the use of thermal pads, yet still delivers the same thermal efficiency.

The top of the PCB holds eight of the BGA-mounted 32GB NAND packages, and the remaining eight populate the bottom of the PCB. The Toshiba 19nm NAND is jointly manufactured with SanDisk through their Flash Forward venture.

A total of 12 power loss protection emplacements are placed close to the NAND packages. The Tantalum capacitors provide the SSD with enough power hold-up to flush data to the lower NAND pages. There are three DRAM packages (for a total of 768MB) above the Marvell controller.

The Optimus Eco utilizes the Marvell 88SS9185-BLN2 controller. This key component provides flexibility for firmware customization, which is an important consideration for deploying the custom SanDisk firmware that allows the Guardian Suite to provide massive improvements in endurance, and performance.